Spring cleaning

I got a bit of the spring fever today and deleted 732 blog posts. I stopped deleting at Mo's birth. But I might continue, might wipe the slate clean. Mo is 4 years old now, and Margo is 4 months. The baby is healthy and cheerful. The sisters adore one another. The biggest surprise here is that I am painting all the time. So much more painting than writing. My poor old blog got lost in the shuffle of life. It's a good thing, though, to be fully immersed in life. To stop standing behind the camera and be part of the action.

Lately

Pregnancy: it's not as fun as you remember it. Luckily the pukesies and misery of the first trimester are well behind me. I lost 8 pounds. But now I believe I am enormous. There was a week or so that I couldn't catch my breath when my uterus started its northern migration and jammed all of my organs into my throat. My yoga instructor would intone for us to enjoy one more round of deep breaths, and I could complete about 15 hummingbird-sized breaths in the allotted time. Otherwise, things are good. A little insomnia, a little back pain, and a desire for sauerkraut. Most of the time I sort of keep the pregnancy on the back burner and just chase after Mo. She tells me she has a baby growing her tummy, too. Nice show of solidarity.

I have been painting, painting, painting all the time because tomorrow I deliver paintings for a exhibition in June at Bishop's Stock. More info on this to follow.

Paint Snow Hill 2014

Here is my photo album from Paint Snow Hill. I should add a photo of my living room and call it "explosion at baggage claim." Slowly getting things put away and catching up on rest. This was my 8th year at PSH. There were 68 artists painting in the coldest, windiest weather the event has ever known. As usual I hid in my car. My mom came with me because a) it was Easter weekend, and b) I'm pregnant! I've had terrible morning sickness this time around, and everyone was worried I would keel over in a ditch. So Mom offered to tag along to keep an eye on me. And we had a great time together. And then I sold 9 paintings at the show. Take that in for a moment: NINE PAINTINGS! Every painting in the picture above, gone. I finished a painting of All Hallows Church on Sunday morning, and that one stayed behind for the May show at Bishop's Stock. So the only thing I brought home with me was the Lissa Abrams painting "Pine Bank" that I purchased. I'm still sort of in shock about the whole thing and not entirely sure what to make of it.

Only 2 more days

...until Paint Snow Hill 2014, which for me is Christmas, the Superbowl, and a day at the circus all rolled into one. It is always the third weekend of April, and that happened to be Easter weekend this year. My family has graciously given me a pass. I leave at the crack of dawn Thursday. And I will be camping in the Pocomoke State Park this time. Cabin camping, not real camping, complete with a heater because the temperature is supposed to dip back down: highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s, partly cloudy, and windy.

There are two shows this time, so if you are in the area, please stop by. First Saturday night from 6-8pm is a ticketed event. Tickets are $30, but that money is applied to your purchase of artwork. And then the free show is Easter Sunday from 1-4pm. Both shows are at the Firehouse Arts Center on West Green Street
Snow Hill, Maryland 21863. For more info please contact Bishop's Stock, which is the command center for PSH. Also there is a fabulous show going on at Bishop's Stock featuring paintings by Lynne Lockhart and Kirk McBride.

Sweet dreams

A little wishful thinking on my part--Mo has never been the best sleeper. Someone was selling these on Etsy for $30. I was all, "I can make that!" I traced a circle, filled it in with blue watercolor paint, sprinkled it with table salt, and added some stars with white craft paint. It's on Mo's dresser now. Maybe she'll take it to heart.

Thanksgiving art sale

Happy Holidays! You know original artwork makes a great gift, so I'm having a sale from now through Mon, Dec 2nd, 11:59pm. In my shop use the coupon code HOLIDAYKICKOFF2013 for 20% off everything. Enjoy!

Something in the works

Psst, I've got a secret!

Going big

I've got this biggie on the easel right now. I haven't used my easel in a long time--usually I work flat on a table or my lap. And I haven't attempted a large painting like this in years because big work is difficult to store and ship. Here are a couple of progress shots. First I blocked out the position of the trees by painting the negative space in pale blue. Then I added the darks with my transparent purple.

When I stepped back I realized the far right tree was crowding his neighbor. I had forgotten how important rhythm is in big work. Rhythm is a musical quality as you look from left to right in the painting. It was going: trunk - rest - branch - rest - trunk - trunk - rest. The "trunk - trunk" wasn't working for me. You can see my correction from the second to third progress photo. I repositioned the third tree completely and fixed the rhythm, so now it goes: trunk - rest - branch - rest - trunk - branch - trunk - rest. Make sense? Okay, probably not. But you can see that it looks better, more balanced. The last photo is a detail of one of the trees so you can see all the colors. Sorry about the late night photography.

I like to drag everything out of the studio and into the family room where I can watch (but mostly just listen to) tv while I'm working. Robb usually ignore this shenanigans. Last night I asked him what he thought of the painting. He glanced at it and said, "It's good." Which is his usual response. I told him he might want to take a closer look since it's going to be hanging above his fireplace. "Oh, it is?" So he gave it an additional 15 seconds of consideration before heading up to bed. He's funny. I'll post photos of the finished painting when I get there.

Wecome to my studio

Over on my art blog I posted a step-by-step look at the making of this painting called Daybreak. So check that out. I've got it framed, so now I need to wrap it up and get it into the mail. It's a wedding gift for Anita and Alex. And if you know Anita then SSHHHHH! Don't spoil the surprise!

Just like that 2 months whoosh

Missing from the internets but hardly idle. I've been painting quite a bit. (Check out my art blog and the shop.) I'm going to try to post once a day every day in November as a challenge to myself. No five page essays probably, but at least a little something. We'll see how that goes.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

The basement work is complete, finally! As I put my studio back together I am taking time to really organize everything. Borrowed Robb's label maker even. Meanwhile I could not resist breaking into my encaustics for the first time, and doing some monoprinting experiments with the oil pastels on an anodized aluminum plate. Good times. And I'm in the middle of reading Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting which Gary Pendleton recommended to me at Snow Hill in the spring. Gary intended to gently push me toward a more realistic painting style. Not likely, but a terrific resource book nonetheless. Carlson was a genius.

A few things

1. Today I found out a friend is divorcing, divorced, and it made me cry for his sake, for her sake, and for their children.



2. These images are from around the web. Abstract expressionist painter Elaine de Kooning made a series of Bacchus paintings in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When I say "series" I mean more than 100 paintings. I am finding them very inspiring lately, especially the one in the top left corner. Elaine's inspiration for the paintings was Jules Dalou's sculpture "The Triumph of Silenus" created in 1885 and located in Paris. I don't care much for the statue with its leering nudist Santa.

3. Home ownership is throwing up some speed bumps for us lately: ants, plumbing, lawn mower, air conditioning. I am hauling 5 gallon buckets from the back yard to the front to keep the new shrubs watered in.

4. The 17 year cicadas should not be here since we saw them last in 2004. But here they are. Sukey was happily gobbling them up this morning, tail wagging and nose to the ground. Nature's buffet. One made me drop my camera in the driveway this morning.

5. Mo's still napping, so I'm going to go paint now.

Paint Snow Hill 2013

I got home from Paint Snow Hill on Sunday evening. It was a blast, as usual. There were 70 artists painting, and all total 49 paintings were sold at the show. Five of those were mine. And I made another trade with Jess Cross Davis at the end. Here is my Paint Snow Hill 2013 photo album complete with notes and stories if you would like to take a look. Now I'm back to the mommyhood. I can hear the distant fussing. Fun while it lasted...

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

It's the most wonderful time of the year: PAINT. SNOW. HILL. !!!!!! *love* And now, PSH has it's own local access commercial.

Landscape artists who inspire me

It's nearly plein air season!  Paint Snow Hill 2013 is only a month away. I've been looking at some of my favorite artists to get the creative juices flowing. I have been poring over the acrylic knife paintings of Welsh artist Matthew Snowden. I stumbled on his artwork quite by accident when I was doing some genealogy research. Maine artist Tim Beavis' dunescapes have had my attention for several years now. I love--LOVE--the small town images created by New Hampshire artist Stacey Durand. Maybe I'll do more work in downtown Snow Hill this year instead of "in the highways, in the hedges" like usual. We'll see.

Also I am taking a portrait painting e-class in April taught by mixed media artist Regina Lord. I really love painting people, but it's been several years since I've actually done any portrait painting. So I am looking forward to getting back into that groove as well.

Oh, and although it's going to be spring any day now, I've been knitting a new sweater for Mo. I'll post some pics soon.

Have an artful Thursday!

Happy little messes

Every time I see one of those ads for children's art supplies that only work on special paper so that they cannot make messes, I get so angry. My newest commercial to hate is one in which a little girl is painting pictures on her parent's electronic tablet using a special stylus and printing the "paintings" out to display on the wall. It's more convenient for their parents, but those children are getting short-changed in the creativity department. It's a difference in philosophy. Some people simply won't allow their children to get dirty. In our house we are definitely not afraid of dough on clothing, paint in hair, and crayon on the table. By making messes Maureen is practicing fine motor skills. And she is learning about the materials and how to manipulate them. With that in mind we made salt dough ornaments on Sunday when Becca was visiting. We all donned aprons and got to work. (Thanks for helping, Bec!) This photo is the beginning of the decorating session that took place later that afternoon. Yes, the special apron that Grandma made for Mo now has some acrylic paint on it--but it was meant to be used!



Mo's favorite activities at the playground are going down the slides and playing with handfuls of mulch and rocks. While my child was up to her elbows in the mulch yesterday I overheard another mom scolding her kid who was doing the same thing, "Drop that mulch right now! You could get it in your eyes!" I cringed and the little girl looked confused, especially since I wasn't stopping Mo. We let Mo dig in the dirt and mulch in our back yard all the time. What's the worst that could happen? We might have to wash her hands or change her outfit. Neither result is the end of the world.

Yes yes yes and yes

[edited to add]

I did not mean to drop a video on the blog and run. I intended to write more about it, but a toddler ate my homework. Like she does everyday. In good ways and in very frustrating ways. This video had me at hello. This is a trailer for a documentary that is in post-production right now called Lost in Living. The filmmakers followed two artists who are best friends from pregnancy through their first several years of parenting. And they also spoke with two artists with grown children about their parenting experience. This idea is so interesting to me. I wish I had money to donate to help with production, so I could see this film.

As the first woman in the trailer states, I feel as creative as ever, I'm full of ideas and excitement about art, but I am stuck in a car that doesn't go faster than second gear. And my creativity--when it has enough time and breathing room--is more mature and focused. The work, when I am able to do it, is really good. I think one of the most terrifying things about becoming a parent for me was wondering if I would ever have flow again.  I definitely have total immersion and enjoyment when I comes to being a mom, but the artwork is collecting dust most days. I think about it all the time.

We had a really nice visit with Rick and Theresa last month, which I intend to write more about. But I was embarrassed that their wonderful Christmas gift of encaustics from last year is sitting on the desk where it's been for months, untouched. Do they think I did not appreciate it? I hope not! It is a function of mommyhood that I haven't been able to dive fully into a new medium. Soon, maybe, soon...

I've been painting

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Paint Snow Hill the long version

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Paint Snow Hill the short version

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